Friday's rise for Google was likely fueled less by overall investor giddiness or advertising revenues, however, as the company seemed to be on the verge of solving its issues in Europe. After resolving antitrust charges in the United States in a deal with the Federal Trade Commission late last year, Google gave the European Commission investigating its core search business a list of changes it is willing to make to avoid charges of illegally using its standing as the dominant search engine.

Google's offer included specific labels for its own services in search results, to solve competitors' complaints about Google's preference for its own products, as well as trimming restrictions on advertisers, according to an unnamed Reuters source. The commission in charge of the investigation, which has lasted for two years, said it was analyzing Google's offer.

A board on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shows the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average, Friday, Feb. 1, 2013. The Dow stock market index closed above 14,000 for the first time since before the financial crisis rocked the world economy. It's gained 6.9 percent this year. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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Richard Drew
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com/ci_22163144/google-avoided-2-billion-2011-global-tax-payments">it follows national and international laws with its tax payments.

With Friday's record-breaking bump, Google has now gained 9.6 percent so far in 2013, but analysts project it will continue to rise. The 42 Google analysts tracked by Marketwatch have an average price target -- the price at which they believe investors should sell Google stock for maximum return -- of $830.45, and all have either "Buy" or "Hold" ratings on the stock.

Jobs report, other strong economic reports spurs Dow's milestone

The Dow's 14,000 feat brings it in line with the Standard & Poor's 500, which has ridden the hot start to 2013 to pass its own milestone number of 1,500. While many professional investors and analysts are unable to care less about big, round numbers for the indexes -- Gordon Asset Management managing partner Joe Gordon called 14,000 "meaningless to the average professional" -- the achievement could draw in smaller investors who have stayed out of the markets since the subprime mortgage crisis.

The bounce that sent the Dow to its mark seemed to stem from Friday morning's release of the January jobs report, which showed continuing modest growth in the U.S. labor market. The Commerce Department reported that 157,000 jobs were added in January, despite a slight uptick in the unemployment rate to 7.9 from 7.8. The report also pushed previously reported totals up, with estimated job gains for the final two months of 2012 increasing from a total of 316,000 to 443,000. Disappointing totals from earlier in 2012 were also adjusted, The New York Times pointed out, but there are still more than 12 millions unemployed Americans searching for work.

Tech stocks were not left out of Friday's bounce, with the SV150 gaining 1.2 percent to match the movement of the major stock indexes. Two prominent valley companies did fall despite the general positivity Friday, however: Apple and Facebook.

And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Up 15.06, or 1.01 percent, to 1,513.17

Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak.